OK, I've been tanking with my prot tankadin all along and I've been doing fine. I struggled a bit when I hit 70, but still got through it OK.Since I've hit 80 thought, I've been doing terrible. Did a bunch of questing to level up with the occasional 5-man, but I suck.What do I need to do? I had a DPS tell me I need to DPS for a while until I gear up and learn the dungeons. The only ones available to me are the first four regular cat dungeons. They are all new to me and I'm getting my butt handed to me.

HELP!

How do I get the gear I need to pull these off? It's frustrating as I was doing great until now and I feel like crap.

After taking a cursory glance at your armory, if you're not averse to spending money I would just grab the entire Hardened Obsidium set from the AH or your local neighborhood Blacksmith. I would also spend some time/moeny catching up your professions.

Well some of your gear is a bit weird (healing cloak, healing shield, crit/sp trinket), so those pieces certainly aren't helping you out. But overall, your ilevel is high enough that you shouldn't be struggling in normal dungeons assuming you're using your CDs as needed and using CC if a pull feels dodgy.

Go to this post: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=29732#p612215 and look at the green gear at the bottom of every slot. Those will list the level you need to obtain them and where you can get them. That should help you out.

I second the hardened Obsidium stuff. Unless you have gear with a significantly better ilvl, the Hardened Obsidium gives you some nice stats.

There is a massive difference between Cata gear and Wrath gear, so anything you have from Wrath should be replaced ASAP (I'm talking to you, shoulders).

If you have an add-on like EquipCompare that tells you in what ways new gear differs from what you have on, you always want to go for gear that offers you more avoidance+block (mastery > dodge = parry). Let stamina and armour take care of itself.

Holy Shield is a powerful cooldown, but it only works when you block, so block % (mastery) is extremely important. I always thought it was stupid that they give us Holy Shield at level 49 when we can only have 5% block until level 80.

All the dungeons I have run before are gone from dungeon finder. The new ones are just that, I've never seen them before.

You mention gear and that will go a long way, but as you say above, knowledge of the instance is also crucial. The best way to learn is with friends (guildmates) who will be patient and explain things you don't get. But additionally, do your homework. This forum is not the best place for that, but you should be able to find other resources on the web that explain what the bosses do and give pointers as to trash (I have vague memories of reading wopedia/wowwiki, maybe tankspot).

IIRC, on Cata normal modes, I found the trash hard - on heroic, it's the bosses. For the trash, get used to marking and asking for CC if necessary. They were designed for that (e.g. in Throne of Tides, there is a trash pull with two murloc healers who can keep going forever if one is not locked down). I use an raiding marking add-on to speed that up (raid mob marker). Learn which classes can CC what; I still have a table of that from mmo champion printed out on my desk; here's a google reference:

Usually just CCing the most troublesome mob (healer or other caster) is a big help - typically hunters are happy to trap; mages/shamans to poly/hex; rogues to sap if the party is patient enough. But most other classes can be useful too if pressed into service. If you feel you don't need CC, then take a hyper-aggressive approach to pulling: mark a skull, pop divine plea, inquisition, avenging wrath, run into the mobs, firing avenger shield and judgement, then hammer of the righteous and into your rotation. Glyph holy wrath for the very useful stuns on dragonkin/elementals. Also I would glyph shield of the righteous rather than crusader if you can. Get used to using hand of reckoning and righteous defence on loose mobs.

Don't worry too much about your survival on trash, focus on aggro: keep facing the mobs and trust your gear and healer to keep you up (although holy shield and divine protection are seldom wasted). On bosses, we have a lot of major cooldowns that can be a great help: Guardian of Ancient Kings, lay on hands, ardent defender, maybe an on use trinket etc. I find the add-on tidyplates with threatplates invaluable in checking I have aggro on all the mobs: it makes the nameplates of loose mobs very large, so you can easily click on them to taunt or otherwise aggro them.

MrPzak wrote:Some good advice here. My Pally is only 67 (main is Lock), and leveling mainly instances has been so easy. But I know it's gonna get a lot harder pretty quick, so this info will come in handy.

Yeah, it's kind of sad how the older instances have been so nerfed (or outgeared by heirlooms, I'm not sure which). I remember the first Hellfire dungeons hit like a truck on new level 58-60s back in the day. Years later, I went there on an alt, was telling people to watch for patrols, CC, etc and they looked me like I was mad. The right tactics were just to zerg through.

Conversely, it gave me a new respect for Wrath dungeons. I went in to normal Nexus at L70 with all the crafted tank gear, well prepared I thought, and actually died to a boss. I think I'd gotten so used to outgearing the instances on heroic with my main, I underestimated them.

Probably the best advice is to err on the side of caution at the start of instance, but if your party protest and/or you find things very smooth, you can take more risks. There's only so much you can do as a tank, so you have to figure out your party's capabilities - having uber dps or a weak healer can make all the difference to a run.

Last edited by econ21 on Tue Jan 31, 2012 11:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.